Keeper-pendant combination

ABSTRACT

A keeper securable to a drawer front or the like, with inwardly opening slot, receives the journal of a handle. Arcuate recesses in opposite sides of the keeper receive lugs in the handle adjacent the journal. Stops in the recesses are engaged by the lugs to prevent contact of the drawer front by the handle.

United States Patent Ciepley [I51 3,681,813 [451 Aug.8, 1972 [54] KEEPER-PENDANT COMBINATION [72] Ted Ciepley, Evansville, Ind.

[73] BllseandLauglllin Industries, Incorporated, Oak Brook, Ill.

Filed: Feb. 4, 1970 Appl. No.: 8,552

Inventor:

Assignee:

US. Cl ..l6/ 126 Int. Cl. ..A47b 95/02 Field Search ..l6/l 10, [26,127; 150/90 References (Ilted UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,267,948 5/1918 Wiley 16/126 4/1886 Jones 16/1 26 10/1939 Stiff ..l6/l27 Primary Examiner-Bobby R. Gay Assistant Examiner-Doris L. Troutrnan Attorney-Woodard, Weikart, Emhardt & Naughton [57] ABSTRACT 7Clahns,4DrawingF1gures PAIENTEmuc' 8 an an 5 a db M INV ENTOR 720 6/5 PLE Y var/4am H BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to pulls for movable 9B0,l93 Brenia Jan. 3, I9 1,622,735 Noelting et ll. Mar. 29, I927 l,772,37l Specht Aug. 5. I930 2,177,554 Stiff Oct. 24, I939 Re.26,0l9 Watt, It. May 3, I966 In addition, devices are known to prevent or limit the extent of travel of the handle away from the mount. This is common in hardware for caskets, and an example is the US. Pat. as follows:

Johnson Nov. 9, I937 Although much efi'ort has been expended in this area, with varying degrees of success as represented by the foregoing patents, for example, there has remained a need for new and attractive styles of hardware for furniture, and drawer front protective means compatible therewith. The present invention meets this need.

SUMMARY Described briefly, in a typical embodiment of the present invention, a keeper member securable to a furniture component, has an inwardly opening slot receiving the journal of a handle. A recess is provided in the side of the keeper member adjacent the slot, and a lug is provided in the handle beside the journal, the lug being received in the recess and movable arcuately therein as the handle is moved up and down during a component pulling and releasing motion. A stop is provided in the recess at the end thereof to engage the lug and preclude contact of the handle with the furniture component. Instead of a single recess in one side, a recess can be provided in each side, with an appropriate stop therein, and an additional lug on the handle to cooperate therewith.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a front elevational view illustrating a pull incorporating a typical embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a section taken at line 2-2 in FIG. I and viewed in the direction of the arrows, and illustrating a typical configuration of the keeper recess.

FIG. 3 is a section taken at line 3-3 in FIG. 2 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 4 is a section taken at line 44 in FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The keeper 11 is illustrated as having a head portion 12 with a flat mounting face 13 (FIG. 2) engaging the front surface 14 of the furniture component 16 which may be a drawer front, a door, or virtually anything else with which a pull might be useful. A stud 17 projects inwardly from the locating face 13 and is rectangular in shape to prevent turning on the axis 18 when secured to the member 16 by a screw 19 threadedly received in the stud and head portion of the keeper.

The keeper has a slot 21 inwardly opening toward the plane of the locating surface and having a closed outer end which is circular and centered at 22 to provide a pivot for the journal 23 of the handle 24. Accordingly the handle is free to swing upwardly around axis 22 from the position shown by the solid outline to any desired extent until stopped by contact with the front of member 16 above the keeper. Normally, however, it would only swing up to about the location indicated by the dotted outline 26 as the member 16 is being pulled in the direction of the arrow 27 by a person gripping the handle 24.

To prevent the backside 28 of the handle from striking the front 14 of the member 16, the handle is provided with a pair of lugs 29 and 31 extending downwardly from each end of the 'circular journal 23. These lugs are coplanar with each other and substantially coplanar with the handle 24 itself. Each of these lugs is received in a recess, the recesses 32 and 33 being provided on opposite side faces 34 and 36 of the keeper. The recesses are arcuate in shape, extending radially outward from the slot 21 as best shown in FIG. 2, the center of the are being at the center of the bearing surface of the closed end of the slot. Accordingly the lugs are free to move in an arcuate path (counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 2) from the position shown, and thus do not interfere with the raising of the handle. However, when moved in the clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2 (handle descending) the lugs will be stopped by abutting engagement with the stops 37 and 38 at the lower ends of the recesses and which face outwardly with respect to the member I6. Accordingly they prevent further movement of the handle toward the member 16 and thus avoid any marring of the surface 14 of member 16. Where the lug is substantially coplanar with the handle, and particularly with the inner surface 28 thereof, it is preferable that the stops be located immediately below the inner most point of the portion of the handle in the slot. In the illustrated example it is preferable that the stop be located immediately inwardly from point 39 on the journal when the journal is against the bearing surface 41 at the closed end of the slot. In this way, any chance of looseness and unreliable stopping of the handle, is avoided.

Further referring to FIG. 4, it will be noted that the thickness or dimension of the lug in the direction of arrows 42 and 43 in FIG. 4 is no greater than the thickness or diameter of the journal 23 and is less than the span 44 across the slot. This enables convenient removal of the handle from the slot when the keeper is removed from the member 16, by simply raising the handle to a position substantially coplanar with the slot and sliding the handle in the direction of arrow 46. Of course the size of the opening 47 in the particular handle shown must be adequate to receive the curved outer surface 48 of the keeper as the handle is moved in the direction of arrow 46, at least until the journal and lugs are out of the slot 21. At this point, of course, it should be recognized that the present invention can be employed with keepers and handles having a variety of appearance designs.

Throughout most of the arcuate travel of the handle, the inner edges 49 and 51 of the lugs 29 and 31, respectively, are closely spaced from the opposite sides of the web 52in the keeper between the recesses 32 and 33. They thereby serve to maintain the horizontal alignment of the handle with respect to the keeper at virtually all positions in the arcuate travel of the handle except in the unusual situation where the handle is approximately horizontal and the journal might be moved inwardly toward member 16. This is an unusual situation, because the journal is normally being pulled against the bearing surface 41 by the handle when the handle is horizontal. Nevertheless, if this unlikely occurrence does happen, the shoulders 53 and 54 will engage the opposite side faces 34 and 36 to maintain alignment of the handle with the keeper and thus preclude any failure of the handle lugs to properly enter the recesses when the handle is once again pulled outwardly to place the journal against the bearing surface 41.

The invention claimed is:

l. A pull for a movable component of fumiture and comprising:

a handle member and a keeper member, said handle member having a journal and said keeper member having a locating surface and a slot opening inwardly toward said surface being adapted to receive said journal;

a first and second lug spaced apart by a groove on said handle member adjacent the ends of said journal, and a first and second recess separated by a ridge in said keeper member adjacent said slot, said first lug being received in said first recess and said second lug being received in said second recess, said first and second reces having stops engageable by said first and second lug to limit pivotal movement of said handle member toward the furniture component, said ridge being slidably received by said groove and abutting said first and second lug limiting sideways movement of said handle member.

2. The pull of claim 1 wherein:

said journal is rotatable in the closed end of said slot, said first recess being formed to permit movement of said first lug and said second recess being formed to permit movement of said second lug through an are between a position assumed when said handle member is pulled to operate said component, and a position against said stops to hold said handle member in spaced relation to said component at times other than when said handle is pulled.

3. The pull of claim 2 wherein:

said first and second lug each have one dimension thereof less than the span across said slot, to peraa at oai is metastases said first and second lug in said are.

4. The pull of claim 1 wherein:

said handle member has mutually facing and opposed laterally spaced shoulders engageable with opposite sides of said keeper member.

5. The pull of claim 1 wherein:

said first recess is provided in one side of said keeper member and said second recess is provided in an opposite side thereof, both of said recesses being semicircular and substantially concentric, with the center of a semicircular closed end of said slot, and;

said first and second lug are coplanar.

6. The pull of claim 5 wherein:

said recesses extend radially outward from said slot at the closed end of said slot.

7. The pull of claim 6 wherein:

said stops being spaced outward relative to said locating surface and immediately inward of the bottom of the closed end of said slot.

1! t I II t 

1. A pull for a movable component of furniture and comprising: a handle member and a keeper member, said handle member having a journal and said keeper member having a locating surface and a slot opening inwardly toward said surface being adapted to receive said journal; a first and second lug spaced apart by a groove on said handle member adjacent the ends of said journal, and a first and second recess separated by a ridge in said keeper member adjacent said slot, said first lug being received in said first recess and said second lug being received in said second recess, said first and second recess having stops engageable by said first and second lug to limit pivotal movement of said handle member toward the furniture component, said ridge being slidably received by said groove and abutting said first and second lug limiting sideways movement of said handle member.
 2. The pull of claim 1 wherein: said journal is rotatable in the closed end of said slot, said first recess being formed to permit movement of said first lug and said second recess being formed to permit movement of said second lug through an arc between a position assumed when said handle member is pulled to operate said component, and a position against said stops to hold said handle member in spaced relation to said component at times other than when said handle is pulled.
 3. The pull of claim 2 wherein: said first and second lug each have one dimension thereof less than the span across said slot, to permit passage of said first and second lug through said slot to the open end thereof at one position of said first and second lug in said arc.
 4. The pull of claim 1 wherein: said handle member has mutually facing and opposed laterally spaced shoulders engageable with opposite sides of said keeper member.
 5. The pull of claim 1 wherein: said first recess is provided in one side of said keeper member and said second recess is provided in an opposite side thereof, both of said recesses being semicircular and substantially concentric, with the center of a semicircular closed end of said slot, and; said first and second lug are coplanar.
 6. The pull of claim 5 wherein: said recesses extend radially outward from said slot at the closed end of said slot.
 7. The pull of claim 6 wherein: said stops being spaced outward relative to said locating surface and immediately inward of the bottom of the closed end of said slot. 